This project emerged during my exchange in London (January–April 2026), while living in Croydon. Although I did not set out to make work about being on exchange, it slowly became impossible to separate it from the work itself. The images started to appear almost instinctively, without a clear plan. 

I have always been drawn to a sense of elsewhere, a constant pull toward what comes next. This project tries to confront that impulse. The prints function as reminders to stay in the present rather than treating it as a transition toward something else. 

The work reflects on time, attention, and presence. There is a tension between movement and stillness, between the urge to keep going and the difficulty of staying where you are. 

The slow process of printing in the darkroom reinforces this. Choosing and making a print requires slowing down and fully entering the image for a moment. Photography becomes a way to revisit moments and to temporarily inhabit them more consciously. It becomes a reminder to practice the same awareness while the moment is still happening. 

These photographs also function as a form of collecting. The physical prints function as anchors—reminders of how to be present rather than constantly oriented toward somewhere else. This sense of Sehnsucht, a persistent longing for elsewhere, has been present for a long time. It can be productive, but also destabilising when it turns into restlessness. 

This is not an escape, but a conscious confrontation with that impulse: how to remain curious without always needing to move on.